The founder and top leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Hafiz Saeed has urged Muslims to be heartened by the death of Osama bin Laden, as his ‘martyrdom’ would not go in vain, a spokesman for the group said on Tuesday. The media are often barred from gatherings of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group that India has been blaming for the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai. But a spokesman for Hafiz Mohammad Saeed said he had told followers at special funeral prayers held for the slain al Qaeda leader that this “great person” would continue to be a source of strength and encouragement for Muslims around the world.
“Osama bin Laden was a great person who awakened the Muslim world,” Saeed’s spokesman Yahya Mujahid quoted him as saying during prayers at the headquarters of the LeT’s charity (Jamaat-ud-Dawa) in Lahore on Monday. “Martyrdoms are not losses, but are a matter of pride for Muslims”, Saeed said. “Osama bin Laden has rendered great sacrifices for Islam and Muslims, and these will always be remembered.”
LeT, is regarded as one of the largest and best-funded Islamist organisations in South Asia. Its founder, Saeed, now heads an Islamic charity, a group the United Nations says is a ‘front for the militant group’. Western security analysts believe that LeT is linked to al Qaeda, though LeT officials deny this. Mujahid said thousands of Saeed’s followers, many of them often in tears, took part in the prayers.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people offered special prayers for Osama bin Laden in Karachi on Tuesday with organisers declaring the al Qaeda chief a ‘martyr’, police said. The event was called by Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).
